I have a wireless card in a computer, signal is very low, why?

Question

I have a motorola router in one room, in another room I have a computer with a wireless card, its about 15-20 feet away. There are a few walls, and there is a television in the living room in between the rooms ... why is the signal so low?

Answer 1

The television between the router and the wireless card can affect the signal as well as the walls which can further reduce the signal.  

There is a way to boost the signal and focus it towards your wireless card it is by making a parabolic metallic reflector which you place behind the vertical antennas on your wireless router.  Because your wifi signal is in the microwave band the signal behaves like light so picture the parabolic reflector behind a flashlight bulb and how it directs and concentrates light in a narrow beam where it is pointed.  So too can you place these home made reflectors behind the wifi router antennas and direct the wifi signal towards the wireless card in the computer through walls or floors.  It behaves in a similar fashion to the way a shiny reflector works behind the light bulb, focusing and directing the signal in the direction you want it to go instead of in all directions.

I have tried this and it does work.  The links to the instructions are below.

Answer 2

I'd suspect that TV first, especially if it's in line with the router and the computer.  Try moving the computer so they're not all in a straight line.

A second factor is the angle the line between the router and the computer makes with the walls.  If it's a shallow angle, more material in the wall is absorbing the radio waves than are if it's a straight-on angle.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Crappy Router, Wireless card, Electronic Interference, all possibilities. It also depends on how thick and dense the walls are cause they can really bring down the range.

Answer 4

It might be the channel you are broadcasting your wireless signal on, sometimes the TV, microwave, speakers and other electronics can cause severe interference with the signal, almost all routers nowadays have a manual channel selection feature. You might try logging into the router (typically 192.168.1.1 in the browser) and seeing if the options they give you allow you to change channels, if you can't do that, then try and move excess electronics away from the receiver and router. (I had the same problem earlier this month and that's what it was.)

Hope this helps.